Heresy and Mysticism in Sixteenth-Century Spain: The Alumbrados

by Alastair Hamilton

Alastair Hamilton presents the intriguing history of the alumbrados, the `Enlightened Ones', investigated and condemned by the Spanish Inquisition. These various groups, though different from one another, were regarded at the time as parts of a single heresy. The first, known as the alumbrados of Toledo, developed a doctrine which closely resembled Protestantism. The later movements, discovered in the south of Spain, distorted the teaching of the great Spanish mystics and indulged in debauchery and ecstatic worship. The Spanish Inquisition, on whose records this study is largely based, first investigated the alumbrados because so many of them were conversos, descendants of converted Jews, the purity of whose Christianity was suspected. Subsequently, inquisitors used the charge of alumbradismo as a means of attacking other liberal and powerful conversos at the imperial court and at the Spanish universities. Hamilton deals with the spiritual climate of enthusiasm encouraged by the great cardinal and primate of Spain, Jiménez de Cisneros, in which the alumbrados of Toledo first flourished. He examines the beliefs of those accused of being alumbrados and the way in which accusations were used to discredit a far wider circle of intellectuals. The first study in English to survey all the different alumbrado movements between 1510 and 1630, it also presents major events in Spanish ecclesiastical history, including the reception of the writings of Erasmus, the rise of the Jesuits, and the first reactions to the writings of mystics such as St Teresa of Avila.

154 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1992

Reviews

[Rina · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book that never implicitly discusses the importance of gender, it certainly dances around the issue. Thus it is fitting that the author, Hamilton, closes the book citing the the heresy of alumbrados, of which he focusses on, was of "poor little women and the ignorant" which over time gradually faded away (132). Hamilton explores the rise of alumbrado heresy along with Lutheranism and actual protestantism in the late 16th century. While his book is obviously older in the sense that it still leaves areas that need to be discussed and explored, it's incredibly important for discussing gender in 16th century heretic trials in the Inquisition. Prominent women such as Isabel de la Cruz led a movement that was followed by many men and women, some of whom had prominent positions within the church. Hamilton could have explored how these women such as Isabel de la Cruz or Francisca Hernádez came into such prominence. However, each chapter brings the focus back on to them and the fears that surrounded them as women who should be subordinate taking such a public voice. Ultimately, if one is going to look at any kind of heresy in early modern Spain, this needs to be one of the foundational texts that they read.